Finding MIN IF or MAX IF in Excel

In the olden days, the hardy Excel pioneers had to type those function names, to create a formula. That's why we look so tired! For example, cell F3 has a formula to find the lowest quantity sold:

=MIN(D2:D8)

To find the highest quantity sold, there is a MAX formula in cell G3:

=MAX(D2:D8)

Things are easier now – you can select the basic functions from the AutoSum drop down. Life is good!

Beyond the Basics with MIN IF

In this example, we want to see the MIN and MAX for a specific product. To make it easy to select a product, I created a drop down list of product names, by using data validation.

While MIN and MAX are useful if you want the overall highest and lowest amounts, what if you want to add criteria? There is a SUMIF function and a COUNTIF function, but no MINIF or MAXIF.

So, it won't be a snap to do a MIN with criteria, but we can muster that pioneer spirit, and create our own MINIF formula. To do this, we'll create a formula that combines the built-in MIN and IF functions. So, the formula starts with those two functions, and their opening brackets:

=MIN(IF(

Next, we want to find the rows where the product name matches the product selected in the drop down list

=MIN(IF(C2:C8=C11

And if the product name matches, we want to test its quantity

=MIN(IF(C2:C8=C11,D2:D8

To finish the formula, type two closing brackets, and then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to array-enter the formula.

=MIN(IF(C2:C8=C11,D2:D8))

When you look at the formula in the Formula Bar, there are curly brackets automatically added at the start and end of the formula, because it was array-entered.

If you don't see those curly brackets, you pressed Enter, instead of Ctrl + Shift + Enter. To fix it, click somewhere in the formula bar, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter.

NOTE: If you plan to copy this formula down a column, use absolute references to the ranges:

=MIN(IF($C$2:$C$8=$C$11,$D$2:$D$8))

Create a MAXIF Formula

To find the maximum quantity for a specific product, follow the same steps, using MAX instead of MIN.

=MAX(IF($C$2:$C$8=$C$11,$D$2:$D$8))

And remember to press Ctrl+Shift+Enter

Congratulations! You are now a rugged Excel pioneer, building your worksheets with your bare hands, from rocks and tree stumps.

Watch the Video

To see the steps for creating MIN IF and MAX IF formulas, you can watch this short Excel video tutorial. The sample file for this video can be downloaded from the Contextures website, on the MIN and MAX page.

Thanks VERY much!!! I spent about 4 hours trying to work out how to take the highest number from a large list of numbers if the first three numbers were "x" and with the help of your webpage, I got it sorted. Thanks again!!!!

Brilliant! Am at a coal mine in the middle of nowhere going through some data, and found your website in a frantic google search while sitting outside in the carpark with 1 bar of signal. Lifesaver. Cheers for the humourous instructions.

It's a shame such a normal (and useful) function as this still has to be done with the memory-hogging Array formula. I guess Microsoft won't get around to adding it as a normal function until Office 2025?

That's great, but I'd like to take it a bit further. I'd like to combine the small/large functions with an if condition. Basically, I want to find the top/bottom 20 values in a column, given that 2 other conditions hold true. Does that make sense?

I can obviously do this with a pivot table using filters, but prefer to avoid having to update them each time. Thanks.

Very valid issue where this formula stumbles is that if the cells are blank or null, then it returns the min value as zero, and I solved it like this. It ignores all ZERO blank NA values and calculates perfectly:

This is a great method and it seems to work very well. I have a situation where the data is not arranged in a "vertical" array. By this I mean the records are listed column-wise, not row-wise. Unlike the capability of the built-in function =averageif() which works both ways, I can't seem to get this method to work in an array where new records are added horizontally in columns.

Thnk you evry much. I've been working on this for quite a while, but this is an easy solution. Thanks for putting it online for everyone! I'm sure you've helped a lot of people, most people dont post a thankyou...

Thanks - this array function is working well for me as a substitute for MAXIFS in my local file. However, after I got is all tested and working, I posted these changes into the live file which is a shared Excel file on my company's internal network server. Turns out, it does not work well in a shared file. When one tries to copy, or insert rows, Excel 2007 returns this error:
Error 1004:
Cannot copy or move array entered formulas or data tables in a shared workbook.
Does anyone know of any way to do MAXIFS without using array formulas? e.g. without using Ctrl+Shift+Enter?
Thanks,
Jeff

So I have used the MIN IF many times now, but for the first time I have gaps in the data, while the min function would traditional ignore blanks, the MIN IF inserts a 0. Certainly something to mindful of but does anyone know a work around?

[...] I think you are probably best to have a single worksheet that contains all the dumped data, along with the timestamp. Then have a second sheet that has a table for the different dates. Have a look at this ("Beyond the basics with min if") to show you how to use conditional formulas to extract only data that is relevant to that date. Finding MIN IF or MAX IF in Excel | Contextures Blog [...]

If I enter "paper" in C12 and "pens" in C13, can I copy the array formula down? Don't seem to be able to do that - it still seems to link only to C11 (even if I remove the absolute reference)? Any help?

I want to extend this formula "one step" further. That is in column E let's say I have first names listed. So instead of finding the maximum value 20 for "paper", I want the formula to return the name in column E. Specifically cell E4 in the above example.

I have found formulas that will return E4 if it is a number, but I get an error if the cell in non-numeric.

Thank you so much for the Max(If) formula. It works perfectly when the data is in the same sheet. However, I have data in different sheets, and got back an error #REF!

For example I have a sheet with 50 states listed down the page in column A, number of employee in column B and $Amount in column C. There are 25 sheets for different companies. I want to find the Max $Amount for each state among the 25 companies if number of employee is > 1000.

Does the Max(If) works when your data is in different sheets? Thank you so much for your help on this.

Thanks for the MaxIF suggestion. I needed to find a the maximum value less than 0 in an array with 2000+ entries. I wasn't looking forward to 2000+ IF statements then using MAX on these to find the answer. Several of the lookup type functions were checked and didn't work out.

The key insight was to view this as array entered and either add the {} or use Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

[…] Creating a “MINIF” function similar to “AVERAGEIF”. What I like to do is create a column where I can put a 1 or 0 to toggle whether a comp is included or not. But I want to summarize that column using Min, Max, Median and Mean. But there is no such thing as a “MINIF” function similar to “AVERAGEIF”. Here is how you create one. […]

Thank you for the post! I applied the Min IF function on a large dataset it returns values for about 35000 rows but fails beyond that. Does anyone have any good suggestion how to extend the rage of the function?

Excel treats formulas as array formulas only when Ctl+Shift+Enter is pressed. In order to do a min of an array, we need to use array formulas. I was looking for a way to avoid array formulas, as they sometimes slow Excel down (if used in thousands of cells). So far, it looks like array formula is unavoidable. This method shown here is the only method I have been using. Thanks.

I have a problem with Excel 2007 whilst trying to total max and min in a row for weather recording. The conditional format works on MAX on the row between B34:Y34 but the MIN function does not. I have tried everything I can think of, but nothing works. The conditional format works on columns but not across rows! Do you know why? Would welcome your advice.